SAO, Tale Of The Ravens
by Drunk Bard
Summary: Five friends begin their SAO Adventure, one of them a Beta Tester, the others his comrades from a different MMO...oh, and his kid sister. Follow the White Raven guild as they fight to survive, especially in the face of a real-life rivalry between their leader, Noah, and the leader of a Red Guild as yet unnamed. Mostly OC.
1. Chapter 1

Apologies in Advance; I only watched the anime, and I barely remember details from that, so if some of my info about Aincrad areas or certain aspects of the game is completely different from the books or show, don't judge too harshly! I will try to post a new chapter at least once a week; write reviews to keep me motivated! ESPECIALLY bad ones; nothing works me up like trying to prove someone is wrong about me!

DAY ONE, FLOOR ONE: Comrades

"Hey! Shou! Did you manage to get a copy?!" Noah asked, as he entered the booth of the cafe where his friends were waiting.

"All three of us managed to, foreigner." Haruka replied, using the nickname they all used whenever he was being annoying.

Shou smiled, "Yeah, cousin, we all got copies; how's the beta going?"

Noah's face fell, "They just closed it down; the Official Version is gonna be out soon, though!"

Quietly, Takumi spoke up, "Another two weeks, correct?"

"Yeah, but you should know that; it's all over the internet!" Noah replied.

"Just…checking." Takumi replied, tonelessly.

"I'm gonna miss our accounts on Freedom, though." Haruka said, gloomily.

"I hear SAO knocks Freedom out of the MMO park; and not just because its VR." Shou declared.

"I know it does." Noah said, smiling.

"So; when the game starts, what are we naming our Guild?" asked Shou.

"The White Ravens!" Noah and Haruka shouted back.

"Just like in Freedom…idiot." Takumi interjected.

"Hey, that reminds me; have any other people from the guild managed to get SAO?" Noah asked.

"No, no one else we know has." Takumi replied.

"Alright, then! I actually have to go; it's Lynn's birthday, I'm gonna surprise her with the copy of SAO I bought (but obviously don't need)!" Noah declared, running off.

"See you in a few weeks, then…" Haruka said, as Noah went through the door.

*TWO WEEKS LATER, NOVEMBER 6th, 2022*

"Can you believe how real this feels!?" demanded Shou, as he charge a boar, smashing it to pixels with his hammer.

"No way!" replied Lynn, Noah's sister, as she fought off a boar with her short dagger.

Meanwhile, several yards away, Noah, Takumi, and Haruka were fighting a large pack of wolves, moving with the type of synchronization a team can only get after years of fighting together in MMO games, and maybe every now and then in real life.

"Be back in a bit! I need to grab a snack!" Lynn declared, she waved her hand, calling up the menu. After a few moments of confusion, she called over he brother, "Noah, where's the log-off button?"

He finished off a wolf that was going for his neck, and while the other two covered his back, he went over to his sister.

"Look closer, dummy, it should be right there…" he paused, looking over her shoulder. He couldn't see it either.

"That is so weird…" he said, as he called up his own menu. It took a few minutes to finish off the nearby enemies, but soon all five of them were gathered around, looking at their menus in shock.

As they started to panic, Noah kept them calm, "Hey, don't worry about it, guys; there were all sorts of funky glitches in the beta, I'd have been really surprised if nothing went wrong today."

Then, they were summoned to the starting point by Kayaba Akihiko, and they heard his shocking declaration along with everyone else; none of their avatars changed when Mirror was used, however, since they always played with avatars as similar to themselves as possible.

As Kayaba's ominous figure disappeared and the force-field vanished, Noah was the first to spring into action, "White Ravens, come with me!" he turned, running into a side alley.

They followed, too numb to question his orders.

"Alright, team; supplies are gonna be running out quickly, we need to head to the next village, and fast."

"Hold on a second!" Shou exclaimed, hand on the sword slung across his back.

"Yeah?" Noah said, as he turned to leave.

"How can you be so calm? Did-did you know this was coming?"

"Don't be a moron, Shou!" Lynn shouted.

Noah held out his hand, silencing his sister, "Of course not; but I've played this game before, and though I suspect it's different from the beta in many important ways, I know pretty soon, when the shock wears off, people will be snapping up the best items; we got some decent training in earlier, and I'm about 85% of the way to leveling up, so if we move quickly and efficiently, we can get through the Dark Woods with only a little difficulty."

"…We really should go." Takumi said, and the group ran out of the city.

As they reached the edge of Dark Woods, an little girl NPC ran towards them.

"Help, help; my family's caravan is being attacked by wolves!" a screen appeared in front of Noah, who was the guild and party leader.

WILL YOU ACCEPT THE QUEST "WOODLAND RESCUE"?

He selected YES.

"What are you doing? I thought we should be heading for the town!" Takumi demanded.

"This is a unique quest; we should go on every one we come across!" Noah said, drawing his sword.

"If you say so..." Takumi said, clearly unconvinced.

They all drew their weapons, running in the direction the little girl indicated.

Soon enough, they reached a clearing with two wagons in it; two NPCs, one an old man the other a young boy, were fending off wolves with torches, but dealing no real damage and clearly getting tired.

"Everyone, charge, but be careful!" Noah ordered, activating a Sword Skill that made his cutlass glow yellow; he cut down two wolves in a single strike.

Pretty soon, they had cleared the enemies away, and were given 500 Col as a reward. But howling was coming from the woods around them. A screen appeared in front of all of them.

SPECIAL EVENT TRIGGERED "THE WOLF PACKS OF AINCRAD"

Suddenly, the NPC Caravan drove off into the woods, leaving the White Ravens alone in the clearing, with wolves howling in the trees all around them.

"Make a circle formation!" Noah ordered, and the five of them did, weapons held out.

Suddenly, wave after wave of wolves appeared, charging the team and easily falling to their attacks.

After a lengthy amount of minutes, the wolves broke away, staying in the safety of the tree-line, but not giving the guild any chance of exit.

"After killing all those wolves, how many times did you guys level up? I'm already at 3!" Shou declared, grinning evilly.

"5." Noah replied smiling.

"Only 2," Takumi said, "but I noticed guild funds just increased exponentially; and no one is seriously injured…"

"Right then, let's wait here; either for the wolves to attack, or to leave, or until the sun comes up." Haruka said, swinging her longsword in anticipation.

Then, four wolves sprang from the bushes, larger than the others, all marked at level 4, compared the level 1 of the other wolves, with fur of pure snow-white. Behind them, a humanoid wolf labeled WOLF-LORD RUKO, LVL 5 appeared, swinging a rusty dagger at them.

"I heard about this!" Noah exclaimed, "Take care of the wolves, I can hold off Ruko at least until you guys can back me up!" he charged, locking blades with the wolf-man.

Takumi moved, lashing out at the wolf closest to him with his poleax, while Lynn kept close behind him.

"Switch!" he shouted, knocking the wolf's feet from under it.

She darted forward, stabbing it in the heart with her dagger. It exploded into several shards of violet light, and she leveled up, reaching level 3.

She and Takumi engaged another wolf, while Shou and Haruka began work on their second wolf; Haruka sustained 67% HP damaged, but they killed it, while Takumi and Lynn both finished of the remaining two wolves.

They all watched as Noah fought, none of them seeing any opportunities to intervene, as Noah expertly lowered his opponent's HP to 40%, while only losing about 10%.

Suddenly, the strength of the wolf-man drastically increased, and it knocked Noah several feet back before lunging in to kill the Beta-Tester.

Shou jumped in, knocking the rusty dagger away with his hammer, but leaving himself open to long yellowed claws. Before Ruko The Alpha finished off anyone, however, Takumi came up behind it, swirly beheading it with his poleax. The wolves at the edge of the clearing all ran away, leaving them to their EXP and Item rewards. Takumi got the rare item Wolf-Skull Helmet as a kill bonus, which he immediately equipped (he also reached level 4), while everyone else got the item Wolf-Claw Necklace; which did nothing but looked sort of cool.

They soon reached the first village.

"This is a great place to train up practical skills AND impractical non-combat skills, on a basic level; I think Lynn should learn some crafting-type abilities while the rest of us train in the surrounding woods; that OK with all of you?" Takumi asked (she had, in previous games, always been the support character; item repairer, healer, etc.).

"Yes." Lynn replied, while everyone else nodded.

"Maybe one of us should stay as a body-guard, though; if I recall correctly, PVP is enabled out here…" Noah said.

"Alright then I'll get first body-guard shift, we'll switch out as we gain levels." Takumi replied.

"Let the games begin, Comrades." Noah said, as dawn finally came.


	2. Chapter 2

Yo, guys! Sorry for the delay. I had some stuff going on that got me away from the computer for a while. Delays like that are only semi-usual. I promise!

DAY EIGHTEEN, FLOOR ONE: Loss And Gain

*November 24th, 2022*

"We…seem to be a tiny bit lost." Takumi noted dolefully, as they made their way through the tunnels of the Floor One Dungeon.  
"A tiny bit? We've been wandering for at least a couple of hours!" Shou whined, as they moved carefully forward.  
"Shut up a second, guys." Noah ordered, his voice barely above a whisper.  
As they all stopped, holding a lose formation and listening for what their leader had heard, a sudden noise startled them, coming from a small offshoot tunnel to their right.  
It sounded like a person screaming. Without waiting to hear Noah's thoughts on the matter, Shou and Haruka both charged down the tunnel, weapons at the ready, which left the others no choice but to follow.  
They quickly reached the end of the tunnel, revealing a wide stone chamber, with strange spiraling pillars sort of like marble stalagmites encrusted with jewels.  
A team of players were fighting a huge creature titled KOBOLD TREASURER. It was similar to many of the smaller Kobolds they had been fighting, but was incredibly large, sitting atop a huge pile of treasure. It was at about half HP, but even as they watched, three of the other players were killed in one of the monster's powerful swipes, leaving only two behind.  
"Ravens, you know what to do!" Noah shouted, running forward, cutlass extended.  
The creature locked on him, throwing out a massive claw.  
"What is this, a side boss?!" Shou shouted, as he knocked aside the Kobold's sweeping tail attack with his hammer.  
"…one would assume." Takumi said, as he dodged a vicious kick from the Kobold Treasurer.  
Noah jumped, quite high, and the boss's hand flew underneath him. Landing lightly on the creature's arm, he use all of his Agility to burst forward, simultaneously activating his strongest available sword-skill for the cutlass, 'Sickle Slash'.  
He flew straight up the Kobold's massive arm, stopping at the top of the shoulder and slashing it viciously across the face, which knocked the creatures HP into red before it shrugged him off, causing him to fall forward. As he fell, it reached out to strike him in midair, a blow that would most likely kill him.  
One of the players who had been initially fighting the monster jumped, into the monster's guard, and stabbed the monstrous hand with a spear; the blow dealt little damage, but knocked the attack upward, so it barely grazed Noah.  
Still Noah had a bad landing, and was left with about 65% HP.  
The Ravens, and the two other players, fell back, closer to the entrance.  
"Thank you!" the girl exclaimed, brushing away tears, "I thought we were gonna die…oh…Lore and the others!" she started to sob.  
Noah chose to ignore her, focusing on the enemy that had nearly killed him.  
"Haruka, Lynn, I want you both to charge him. Draw his attacks, stay on the defense; you're both agile enough to dodge his main attacks. Shou, hold off that tail like you were, and be careful! Takumi, wait a moment, then help me take the opportunity to take down this ugly bastard." Noah's face was grim.  
"Right!" exclaimed the two girls, simultaneously, as they charged forward.  
A moment after they started dodging casual punches and kicks, the long, serpentine tail started looping around, trying to catch them from behind. Shou charged, hammering it into the ground with vengeance.  
Takumi and Noah charged, both activating sword skills.  
The kobold unleashed a surprise attack, belching out a huge blast of hurricane-force wind, which both were able to dodge. Takumi, however, turned away completely, while Noah used his momentum to fly forward scoring a deep cut in the creature's chest, which caused all parts of it to vanish in shards of multicolored light.  
In front of Noah, a panel appeared. ACCEPT REWARDS FOR BOSS KILL: 3,586 Col, OVERLORD'S KATANA.  
All of the others, the two unknown players included, received roughly a hundred Col and a rare weapon that suited their style. They also all leveled up, at least once, while Noah went from level 11 to 13.  
He walked over to the boy carrying the shield and spear, and the rapier-wielding girl, who was still crying.  
"I'm sorry for your loss…if we had arrived sooner-"  
"Then the outcome would have been pretty much the same. We were lured here by a kid…a beta tester; he was a beta tester who said we could get an easy kill and some awesome rewards…there were eleven in our team, but we were too weak, and he knew it. He tried to use as fodder and take the whole reward and exp bonus for himself; when he tried to use me to block an attack from the monster, I threw him in front of it…better than he deserved. Anyway, I'm Rin, this is my sister, Sakura."  
"Pleasure to meet you." Noah made a deferential half-bow. "Would you like to return to the city with us?"  
"Yes…let's not beat around the bush; my team is dead, except for my sister here. I need a new guild, and I owe you a life debt. May I join your guild?"  
"….You would be a most welcome addition to the White Ravens." Noah said, extending his hand.  
Rin took it and gave a single firm shake.  
"Before we get back to town…we need to find a way to get out of these tunnels." Takumi noted, his tone pessimistic.  
"Good point." Shou said, grinning as he happily swung his new, larger and shinier, hammer.


	3. Chapter 3

DAY NINETEEN, FLOOR ONE: Beyond Mortal Ken

*November 25th, 2022*

"I…don't have any idea where we are." Rin said, as he peered at some odd carvings in the tunnel wall; scratches that were some indecipherable language; possibly the kobold tongue.  
"No one seems to." Takumi said, wryly. While traveling through the dungeons the day before, they'd four caskets of rare foods and wines; he was just finishing off his share of the wine, and Lynn's as well.  
"Even drunk, the most loose you get is dark humor and a bit of stumbling, huh?" Haruka asked, rhetorically.  
"Yep." he replied, as he continued dragging the tip of his new naginata along the floor of the tunnel.  
"Please stop with that infuriating noise." Shou said; the simulated alcohol was quite potent, and he was only just recovering from the previous evening's revelry.  
"Let's all keep calm; we're probably getting closer to the exit, or the boss; either way we get where we want to be!"  
"Why did we lose the map in the first place!?" Lynn demanded, of no-one in particular.  
"Uh, it got torn up when we met that first group of Kobolds, the night before last." Haruka admitted, sheepishly.  
"Were you trying to use it as a weapon?" Takumi asked, genuinely puzzled.  
"It's…a long story. Shut up!" Haruka replied, anger flaring, before it quickly morphed into a sullen silence.  
Noah chuckled softly as they made their way their way along the spiraling warrens in the eerie light of their Torch Crystals.  
"What is it, Noah?" Rin asked, still slightly formal with his new leader.  
"Nothing, it's just a bit weird, is all. Sometimes I feel like all this," here, he gestured vaguely with his hands; a wide, sweeping motion, "is just some sort of weird dream."  
"Yeah…" Sakura said, and those were her first words of the day. She sniffed a bit and rubbed her eyes, returning to her normal mournful silence.  
"We're coming to another fork." Shou, who as at the front of the group, sounded annoyed to say the least.  
Both tunnels look unappealing; one was small, a bit damp, with a crude drawing of a sword in front of it. The other was more a continuation of the main tunnel, but with skulls and bones all over the ground around it.  
"I think…the small one." Takumi said, head seeming to suddenly clear.  
"That's my vote." Shou said, sullenly.  
"Seems the right idea." Noah said, and they all walked single-file down the path, Shou leading, Lynn trailing last.  
After about thirty minutes of walking, the tunnel opened into a small underground lake; not quite underground, as there was a hole straight up to the surface.  
By the lake there were trees and foliage, as well as a small cottage. Carefully, they walked towards the cottage.  
An old man NPC emerged from behind the cottage, a small large-ish bundle in his hands. When he saw them, he gave an exclamation of surprise.  
"Travelers? How did you get past all the Kobolds in the tunnels?" he asked, running over.  
"We fought." replied Noah, carefully.  
"Impressive. You seem worthy souls," with this, he flourished, dropping his bundle and swirling his tattered blue cloak impressively, "I am Naedn, the unconquerable; warrior unmatched! If the seven of you would be willing to commit to two months straight of training, I will give you power unmatched by any mortal in this realm! And the one among you who becomes the strongest will gain a great reward…"  
The same message appeared before all of them; ACCEPT TRAINING OFFER?  
"Guys…this seems like a rare opportunity. Even as a tester, I never heard of this." Noah said, hitting yes.  
They all followed suit.  
"Good!" said the old man, "Tomorrow, training begins; in the meantime, share some Pack-Boar meat with me! The kobolds are poor and defending their mounts." he laughed heartily.  
They all ate heartily, happily awaiting the mysterious training.

*November 26th, 2022*

"If we keep this up, we WILL die!" shouted Shou, as the seven of them fought the old man.  
"Come on, pups, no words of discouragement! I'm only one, unarmed old man, after all." he laughed gleefully as he knocked Takumi on his butt with a fairly light punch.  
He was a whirlwind of movement, un-hittable, impossible to defend against.  
As the hours passed, only Noah and Rin were still fighting, while the others rested (painfully) off to one side.  
Naedn nodded, "I've separated the alphas from the pack, it seems! So few of you, though!" he shifted his stance, charging for Rin.  
The young fighter pulled his spear and shield into a tight defensive/offensive form. The combat master quickly jumped, kicking off of the shield and dodging a futile strike from Rin. He flew through the air, aiming for Noah. Noah ran forward, passing under Naedn and swiveling to stand beside Rin, both with weapons at the ready. The old ma  
Before the old man could pull a finishing attack, however, Rin managed to knocked him aside with his shield sword skill, known as 'blunt smash'.  
The old man stopped. "Nice! Someone finally landed a blow! For that, the two of you get to rest while the others run laps!"  
By rest he meant make dinner, but they finished in a relatively quick amount of time, and the others only had to run about seven laps in the time it took people of their low cooking skill to make stew.  
They each noticed an improvement; they had all gained exp, their base stats were slightly improved all around, and they could see that in two months time, that sort of training would pay of, especially if it increased in intensity. They were still tired, though, and slept like newborn babies that night, despite the fact that they weren't in the protected confines of a town.  
The old man stood at the mouth of the tunnel, doing nothing; not even breathing. There was no reason to; no one was around to activate any of his actions, there was no reason to pretend.  
Off in the distance he heard the sounds of players fighting off kobold sentries. If he was still pupil-less, he would have gone and rescued them; then made them his students. However, he had students, so instead he sat idly by as six players fell in the face of an unstoppable onslaught.  
The stillness of night returned, and he sat, immobile as always, patiently for the arrival of dawn.


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry about this, anyone who may still be reading! The partial melting of my computer's hard-drive (long story involving water balloons and a faulty power strip) has sort of thrown me off my game, though I will continue posting through my phone; with a significant decrease in grammar quality, it's sort of a drag, so I won't do it as often...or maybe I'll do it MORE often, since my phone is always near me and I'm usually bored...time will tell.

CHAPTER FOUR: Role-Play

DECEMBER 4TH 2022

"What do you mean what are our team roles?" Asked Shou, frowning.

Naedn sighed and rubbed at his eyes: something he was doing more and more often whenever he talked to Shou. "I mean what skills do each of you bring to the team, and how do they work in with your overall formation?"

"Oh...I guess I hit stuff." Shou said, blithely.

"For the love of...!" Naedn made a wordless strangling gesture with his hands. "Noah! What is your role in the team's combat formation?"

"Tactician, commander, and powerful frontal attacker." Noah replied, without pausing his sparring match with Rin.

"Good: how about Lynn?"

"Uh...support; healing, equipment repair..."

"Okay, then Shou, what's your role?"

"I hit whatever Noah or Takumi tell me to."

"...Fine."

DECEMBER 9TH 2022

"So...what are we doing here?" Lynn asked her brother, during one of their infrequent breaks.

"Getting stronger; the other players have probably beat at least a couple of floors by now, but it's unlikely they'll be as strong as we are: I've already hit Level 26! And with this regimen, I could hit 32 before training is done..."

"I know, we've all benefitted...it's just...I don't know! I don't like it here; how long do we have to stay?"

"Neadn says that at our rate of progression, the first of us will graduate next week." he said, "If I can pass the final test, of course." He grinned.

"Great...how long for the weakest of us?" he knew by her words she meant herself.

"The last of us will graduate no later than the 20th; he guaranteed it."

She smiled, less worried, "That's good!"

DECEMBER 11TH 2022

"Raahr!" Noah gave a wordless cry of effort as he slashed a Kobold Berserker in half, down the middle. These Elite Mobs were his final test. All he had to do to pass was survive five minutes fighting them; it had been 43 seconds, and he'd already lost 35% of his HP.

He dodged a strike from one of the axe-wielding ones, but was skimmed by a blow from one of the hammer-wielding ones.

He spun, activating his Whirling Slash sword-skill, which effectively pushed back the mobs long enough for him to prepare a second sword skill; Katana Rain. It involved leaping over the heads of his enemies and executing several powerful slashes and stabs upon their heads; hence 'Rain'.

It worked well, but left him open to a sling-shot attack from a Kobold across the room.

He dropped to the ground, then stood with tremendous effort. His HP was now at 56%. Not in the red, but not as high as he needed.

2:53 left...

He took on a defensive stance, silently urging one of the Kobolds to attack.

The one using the sling-shot launched another rock in his direction. Noah cut it cleanly in two, laughing as the pieces fell harmlessly to either side before vanishing in a multitude of multicolored lights.

He had nothing to worry about.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE: The Bloody River

DECEMBER 15TH 2022

The three members of the White Ravens not still training with Naedn (Noah, Takumi, and Rin), spent their days doing different things.

Noah usually went out into the wilds of the two floors, hunting rare monsters, gaining exp.

Rin would join PvP tournaments, do group quests with random players, and solo his way through the dungeon in search of the Floor 2 Boss.

Takumi, meanwhile, spent his days doing a little bit of everything: trying to seek out new recruits for the Ravens.

At around sunset they would all return to the small studio apartment they were renting for the team (it was basically one big room with a bathroom sectioned off and a table to the far while, near the stove they rarely used), and tell tales of how their day had gone, what they were planning to do the next day, and bragging over how much Col they had gathered.

They did not know it, but serious adventure was coming.

DECEMBER 21ST 2022

(Noah)

Noah stood on the crest of the hill, using his Hawk-Sight skill to track the movements of a heard of Demi-Wolves.

A newly formed guild by the name of The Army had hired him for a quick job hunting and looting Demi-Wolves in search of a rare item; Nehkt's Dagger, which supposedly opened a mysterious door in an abandoned ruin somewhere on Floor Two.

He was working in a unit with six other 'hired hands' and eleven members of The Army, including one "Commander Kibaou", a rather annoying fellow who had given Noah some nasty glares following the discovery that he and several other of the 'mercenaries' were Beta Testers.

"I see them; they're milling about at the center of that batch of hills, about six-hundred meters ahead of here."

"Good! Those of you not members of The Army, charge the Demi-Wolves, we'll loop around to trap them!" Kibaou ordered.

Reluctantly, Noah and the others obeyed, setting off in the direction of the wolves.

A little while later, they arrived.

"Right! Charge the wolves, but stay together, just 'cause The Army's made us bait doesn't mean we should let each other die." one mercenary said, grimly drawing his short-sword and shield.

As one, they charged, as one, they reacted in surprise when the wolves vanished, revealing an apparently expensive little projector attached to the side of the hill, the hill from behind which about twenty players with orange markers emerged. Most were wearing masks, but the one in front, with the red-died hair and the battle-ax in his hand, was someone Noah recognized-in a not-good way.

"Well, if it isn't my younger cousin, Noah! How are you this fine evening!?" Izuma asked, waving a hand with deceptive non-chalance.

"These are my pals! We call ourselves The Bloody River Gang!"

"Oh...well..." Noah was at a loss.

"Guys! This is my cousin, Izuma; he's a psycho in RL, too! We can't really escape, all at once, so you guys run back and warn those army d-bags...I will stay here and fight."

The one with shield and sword stepped forward.

"Hey, I'm not running from anybody!"

"Yeah!" said another one; a girl wielding a scimitar and a crescent shield.

The other three ran.

Noah grinned. "Thanks!" he said, before lunging at his cousin, sword extended.

(Rin)

"And now! Prepare for the Seventh PVP Brawl of Floor Two! Are the contestants ready?"

Rin tapped 'YES' along with the twenty other players in the sandy pit that served as an arena.

In the corner of his eye, he saw an axe-wielder charge him, weapon raised up.

He stepped forward quickly, smashing the player in the chest with his shield and stabbing him in the arm, causing the player's HP to drop to yellow and banishing him from the match.

By the time the ten minute mark had passed, Rin had eliminated seven players, and lost barely 6% of his HP.

A tall man wielding a massive broad-sword charged him, and Rin side-stepped jabbing the man in the shoulder, again causing the enemy's

HP to drop into yellow. He looked for a new opponent to face, realizing there was only one player left; a huge masked man with a broad-axe the size of a person.

Face drawn in concentration, Rin moved forward, shield at the ready, spear-tip out.

The broad-axe wielder lunged, swinging his weapon in a wide arc.

Rin ducked beneath the attack, attempting to stab the masked player with his spear, only to find that his opponent was far more agile than figure indicated, and had easily danced out of range.

Rin growled, twirling his spear.

He was getting annoyed.

(Takumi)

Takumi twirled his naginata, neatly severing the head of a 'Kobold Wild-Man' the only Kobold-type enemy on Floor Two.

Two more approached him cautiously, weapons held out.

They both exploded in a sudden flash of light, as a huge Rare Mob called 'Sword Dragon' lurched out of the thick trees, launching fireballs every-which way.

Takumi used his 'Assess' skill to see the Rare Mob's stats. He noted two things; one, he couldn't outrun it, two, he couldn't beat it by himself.

"May as well make a good show." he said, to no one, taking a stance.

(The Others)

Naedn was a cruel taskmaster; Shou and the girls were fighting off hundreds of Kobolds, frantic merely to survive.

The old man cackled.

"You'll never catch up to your friends that way!"


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX: Progress

DECEMBER 21ST 2022

(Noah)

"Noah! You'll pay for this, coward!"

Izuma shouted, as Noah and his new allies, Gabriel and Maria, ran into the thick forest for cover.

The battle had gone on for hours; Noah and the other two had been forced to kill players to survive; PKers, true, but players nonetheless.

Eventually realized no help was coming, they broke away, fighting past the Bloody River members and fleeing towards the cover of the aforementioned woods.

"The two of you fought with valor; would you like to join my guild?" Noah asked, breathing hard as they ran through the woods.

"Sure!" Gabriel gasped, jumping over a small pond.

A moment later, Maria gave a similar reply.

He called up his Guild Leader screen, sending them both invites as they ran.

When they hit yes, he said, "This has not been a good day; but every cloud has a silver lining. Needless to say I'll be talking with the so-called Thinker about this whole incident."

"Cool!" Gabriel gasped.

(Rin)

Rin gave a roar of victory as his opponent's HP dropped to yellow.

He took the 6,500 Col reward and the rare cloak named Locust Tapestry and walked from the field, a satisfied grin on his face.

(Takumi)

As the dragon charged, and Takumi tensed, it was knocked aside by a blow from what seemed to be someone's thrown weapon: a hammer, specifically.

"Yo! It's been a while! Me and Haruka just passed crazy-old-man school!" Shou shouted, gleefully.

Haruka jumped atop the massive lizard, slashing with her sword while Shou retrieved his weapon.

"Ready? Set. Go!" Shou roared, and the three begin the offensive.

(The Others)

"Lynn, Sakura; you are not meant to be fighters. Lynn has found her niche as someone who supports the group behind the scenes, but Sakura, what should you do? Before I let you graduate, I have an idea...Sakura should become a beast-tamer/trainer!

In fact, I'm sending you both to the surface (un-graduated) so you may retrieve her a pet. Take the ladder to the surface, girls, I'll wait here."

November 21ST 2022

"Drinks for everyone! To a temporarily united guild!" Noah shouted, his voice echoing through the tavern.

"And to the rare drop 'Dragon's Egg'! May it hatch soon and provide Sakura a valuable ally!" roared Shou.

"To whoever keeps buying drinks!" a random player shouted, causing much drunken laughter.

"This sim-alcohol works wonders!" Haruka said to Takumi, grinning.

He was quiet for a moment, staring at his own glass of fairly weakened wine.

"About earlier...thank you." he said.

She grinned, slapping him on the back.

"Of course!"

DECEMBER 23RD 2022

"The day after christmas, we're talking to Thinker about all that happened with Kibaou." Takumi said, somberly.

"Right; speaking of christmas; what are out current funds, Haruka?"

"Over forty-thousand Col! You guys were busy."

"Yeah, we were! That's enough for a small walled enclave on Floor One...

maybe by a lake or something!" Shou said.

"I think we should hold off on buying a base on one of the cheap floors; let's gather a ton of Col (around 600,000,000) for a REAL castle on floor twenty-ish." Noah said.

"Why?" Rin asked.

"Well, I was thinking, we've got...9 people, once those two graduate; ten if you count whatever's in the egg...and we're high-leveled, too. None of us are in the official ranking, but if we did register, everyone who trained with Naedn except Sakura would be in the top thirty player list, and Maria and Gabriel are above average...if we do register to the rankings, all of us, the guild will become famous, and we'll be flooded with people wanting to join; we could become bigger than the Army!" Noah declared, proudly, "Which brings me to our dilemma; do we want that?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I'm genuinely torn with how to proceed; make the Ravens a powerful military style guild, or leave as-is and have them move under the radar for a while longer? I'd love to hear some other people's points of view before I make a decision, so PM or Review!


	7. Chapter 7

Well, I fudged up. xp the Army as we know it in SAO apparently wan't founded 'til Floor 20-something. Ah, this will be the first of many accidental changes to the SAO universe, I predict...sorry.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Standoffish

DECEMBER 27TH 2022

"I'm glad we waited for this little guy to hatch and get stronger!" Noah said, happily squeezing the small Onyx Hatchling that Sakura had named Roku.

"I've never heard of a pet getting so strong, so fast." Rin said, looking at Sakura.

"My 'Graduation Present' from the old man was an item that boosted Roku's leveling up powers for the span of two days; the rest was easy." she said, sheepishly.

"Good." Takumi said. "Today we go as a guild to lodge a formal complaint with Thinker."

"Yeah...can't wait." Shou said; even he had the sense to be a little worried. The army had been around for a short while, but it was already surrounded in rumors; very few good ones.

FLOOR ONE: OUTSIDE ARMY HQ

"Well, it's pretty impressive." Noah said, grudgingly.

"The Black Iron Palace? No ####." Shou replied, sarcastically.

The ten of them (counting Ruko) stood outside the Army HQ,while the guards were processing their requests for an audience with Thinker.

"Alright, if you can come right this way, I'll take you to the audience hall." the armored officer said, leading them through a series of hallways

until they reached a rounded chamber, when all the White Ravens were inside, he slammed the door behind them and unequipped his helm. It was Kibaou.

"I can't believe you survived! It's too bad you won't live long enough for me to ask how, but I can't have any complaints about me on file; you know how it is, politics!" he shouted gleefully, before pressing a button that caused the floor to fall from under their feet.

After a minute or so of falling, they landed in a dimly torch-lit hall.

"Are these...tunnels under Floor One?" Sakura asked.

"No idea," Rin replied, "but we need to get out of here."

Ruko growled nervously.

So, the bewildered team moved forward down the winding tunnel.

"Deja-Vu, much?" Lynn said, sarcastically.

"What does she mean?" Maria asked.

"Oh, we got lost in the Floor One Dungeon for a while; it's the reason we're so leveled up." Haruka replied.

"Ah."

Soon, they reached a large circular chamber with a huge gate at the end of it, and blue torches all across the room.

"Proceed with caution." Noah ordered, Katana drawn.

Suddenly, from the ground beneath the door, about a dozen skeletons in iron armor emerged, swords in hand.

"Sakura; as they approach, get Ruko to blast them with fire-balls! Everyone else, get ready..." as the skeletal mobs approached, he noticed their name "Black Iron Sentinel". As in Black Iron Palace? The Army was in for it, now...


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT: Alliance

DECEMBER 29TH 2022

Noah and the others escaped the dungeon, relatively easily, but they were all pretty angry. So angry that Shou drunkenly declared they'd take on the Army any time anywhere, in public, multiple times.

This information reached two groups; the upper ranks of the Army, who, having never heard of The White Ravens, laughed it off, and the two council-members of a Guild Alliance called the Anti-Army Revolution, consisting of the guilds known as the Rose Paladins and the Cackling Sword-Clowns.

The Paladins was made up of 11 players, all lance-users who rode horses and were leveled between 20 and 25.

The clowns, by contrast, had no real theme, numbered 49, and were leveled anywhere between 15 and 29.

The leaders of both had good grievance against the much larger guild, and had been totally ignored. Unfortunately, they were wary of declaring a guild war, even a PK-disabled one, against the largest guild in SAO (the obligatory wager for a non-PK war was that the winner could take all they wished from the loser's bank).

So, they were looking for allies, and had found them in the Ravens.

Noah joined the council, and together the three Guild Leaders discussed strategy.

Yama, leader of the Clowns, was an advocate of declaring a non-PK war, while Trystan, the Paladin leader, was in favor of gathering more allies first.

"Well," Noah told them, "I'm good with either plan, but in my opinion, the Army is arrogant, and they don't wanna be seen as bullies, so I say we declare war, say it's three-to-one, non-PK rules, BUT they can only use under 100 troops."

"Seconded!" Yama said, waving his huge axe in the air.

"...seconded. That is our plan, then." Trystan said grudgingly.

"Yeah; as far as combat strategy goes, I think a three point formation of all of us, basically flanking the Army, should work alright." Noah added.

"We'll see." Trystan said.

DECEMBER 29TH 2022

THE BLACK IRON PALACE

"Junior Commander Kibaou, I was told you could explain why these three guilds are so angry they would declare war on us?" Thinker demanded, angrily.

"Sir, as director of inter-guild complaints, I deemed their causes of grievance insignificant and petty; I stand by it." Kibaou replied.

"...Fine! You'll lead 80 men against the three enemy guilds, in a non-PK skirmish at sunrise on the first of January, at dawn; if you lose, they'll be able to loot Vaults 1 &2 (of 15) to their heart's content, so do not fail the Army in this."

"Yes sir."

JANUARY 1ST 2022

In the field just outside the town of beginnings, four figures stood at the center of the gap between two armies.

"Kibaou, you're time to pay is now." Noah said, gesturing with his sword.

"It's not dawn yet! Wait a bit to lose all your possessions, alright?" Kibaou chanted gleefully.

"I will enjoy cleaving you in two, Kiba." Yama said, grinning. (Kiba is a pun on his name, since it means dog in Japanese, which is what they're speaking)

Kibaou snarled, turning and walking angrily back to his troops.

"Form up!" he shouted. They did.

"When it turns dawn, I want you to charge; don't bother with strategy, just tear them to the ground!" he roared, drawing his huge two-hand sword.

"Alright, Trystan, you take your Paladins and ride around, taking them from the left-our left-while Yama charges directly toward the front. My team will be to the right, trying to more or less loop around behind the main force." Noah said. They made formations.

When a player 'died' in non-PK Guild Wars, they were warped to a temporary jail for the duration of the battle; it wasn't a fun place to be; Noah was determined to send half the Army there personally.

Dawn came and light filtered through the clouds. It begin to lightly snow.

"CHAAARGE!" roared Yama, Trystan and Kibaou, simultaneously.

"Come on guys." Noah said, and they begin to run alongside the clashing armies, avoiding actual conflict until they were behind the Army, none of whose members had noticed them.

"Charge!" shouted Noah, lunging forward with his sword out.

By noon, the field was nearly empty; most of the Clowns and Army-members had been jailed, while the Ravens had remained un-jailed and only a bit injured, and the Paladins only had one jailed and nearly no injuries. The dozen or so remaining Army-members were out-numbered, but Kibaou was whipping them up into a frenzy.

The resultant combat was short but satisfying, as the Army was crushed and Takumi ran through Kibaou.

A huge 'CONGRATULATIONS' banner appeared above the field, as all the Jailed members of the victorious side reappeared.

"Okay, as agreed, we take one third of everything, each." Trystan said.

"It's not even a quarter of their vaults, but we'll be fairly flush!" Yama declared, happily.

The Alliance disbanded amiably, and they all returned to their 'bases' awaiting the arrival of their reward.

A courier from the Army appeared, and grudgingly gave them two large sacks of gold, a legendary sword, and several ingots that reportedly could make amazing weapons, when Lynn became a skilled enough blacksmith.

"So, we'll put the sword in storage, since none of us has the Skill to use it, and we'll save the ingots...how much Col do we have?" Noah asked Haruka.

She opened her treasury ledger, directly linked to the Town Bank. Then she gasped.

"A-amazing...we have...788,946,896 Col..."

Everyone made noises of appreciation.

"A base...NPC Soldiers...anything we want..." Shou said, dumbly.

"This is just a fraction of the Army's coffers, is the real shocking bit." Noah replied.

"Yeah...let's go buy a castle." Rin said, grinning.


End file.
